Shearers Hope For Revenge In NZ

Two Northern Hemisphere hopes who were
unable to stop a Kiwi wave of success at the World shearing
championships in Norway two months ago will make separate
bids to get a bit of their own back in New Zealand when they
attempt tghe World solo eight-hour strongwool lambshearing
record next week.

First out of the blocks will be Scotsman
Gavin Mutch, from Huntly, near Aberdeen, who makes his bid
on Monday at Pohokura in remote hill country near Stratford
, near where he and Kiwi wife Pip have made their home at
Whangamomona (pronounced. Whaanga-mom-on-a)..

Ivan Scott,
a Christchurch-based Irishman from County Donegal, will make
his bid four days later on Onuku Maori Trust Farm at
Rerewhakaaitu (pronounced Rere-far-kaa-eetu), south of
Rotorua..

The target is Southern Hawke’s Bay shearer and
farmer Justin Bell’s record of 731, set at Opepe, near
Taupo, set six years ago as he and Wanganui shearer Sean
Edmonds als set a two-stand record.

Bell, who believes the
record could one day go as high as 800, will be at both
record bids, and is closely involved with Scott’s day, in
the same shed where in 2004 Bell also broke the glamour
nine-hour record, which he held for two years.

Mutch also
has good mates in his corner, with the bid managed by Digger
Balme, who held the record nine years ago.. Balme will be
helped by veteran fellow Te Kuiti shearer and multiple
record breaker and titles winner David Fagan.

Also in the
cast of supporting locals will be Paul Avery, who won the
World championships final as 28-year-old Mutch capitulated
after winning a pre-shears event a week earlier and two of
the three preliminary rounds, as well as being top qualifier
from the semi-finals.

Each record will comprise four
two-hour runs, broken by a lunch-hour and two half-hour
smokos. Registered with the World Shearing Records Society
this summer, each will be overseen by three judges,
including one from Australia .

Meanwhile, Wairoa
mother-and-daughter Marg and Ingrid Baynes are continuing
with plans for their bid for the vacant two-stand women’s
record on January 13, at Mangapehi, King Country.

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